New Lead
by ShadowPillow
Summary: Ten years have passed since Voldemort attacked the Potters, and Harry became the Boy-Who-Lived. One year has passed since the Elric brothers were trapped on this side of the Gate. Now, they are living in London, and soon these two worlds will collide. And in this collision, the Elrics find a new opportunity, a New Lead, to get back home: magic. (Post CoS, 2003 anime)
1. New Lead: Prologue

Welcome to my story, New Lead. I have been changing this thing around a lot of times, and hopefully I've battered it into a shape that makes some sort of sense. Before there were time compressions, time skips, sloppy writing, no real plot... Ugh. A whole bunch of problems. And before, it was also first person, but you can probably see it's now third person. And might as well put it here, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter.

Well, that was a lovely story introduction. But here I give you some actual background:

This story starts after a slightly alternate version to the movie Conqueror of Shamballa. Instead of the whole pre-WWII deal going on, this deals with a more fanatic offshoot of the Golden Dawn in the UK (caused by Hohenheim approaching them for rumors of their more "magical" qualities and their scholarly interest in these things) . They begin to explore alchemy, and Ed becomes involved similarly to in the movie (Envy the dragon). Noah is pursued for her more mystical skills, and Alfons works as a space engineer alongside Ed. The basic story layout is the same, it's the setting that's different. This may affect the plot of this later on, considering that the Golden Dawn especially emphasized magic (which was never proven to be a certainty to Ed and Al), and the world of Harry Potter operates on magic being real. So, it gives this story some more depth that I can work with, and plus, it gets rid of that nasty time skip. Convenient how it all works out, isn't it? Anyway, no offense to anyone who might take offense. If you know more about the Golden Dawn then I do, feel free to tell me stuff!

Anyway, this all means that I'm actually restarting this story. It starts out with the same idea, but is way different. Sorry, earlier readers, but I just can't write what I don't want to write. Somehow, it was just really awkward and bad, so... This is the result. Hopefully, it'll be a lot better and more enjoyable than the original story. _That's _all on DeviantART, so if anybody wants to give a read, go ahead. For those who are just coming to this story, welcome! And enjoy! (That goes for everybody who's reading this. It is a requirement. You must enjoy.)

* * *

**New Lead  
**Prologue.

* * *

Halloween. It is the day when magic is strongest, when the veil between worlds is thinnest.

It was the day Voldemort struck, killing Harry Potter's parents. It was the day too, he was vanquished, destroyed by the act of love and Lily Potter's sacrifice.

It was the day Edward Elric found himself in a world of physics rather than alchemy. When he had unknowingly entered a world where magic existed. That same day, he killed his other self, another boy named Edward. An accident, yet still irreversible.

The same day, he returned. That time with his own body.

Two years later an offshoot of a group called the "Golden Dawn" attempted to open the Gate. Hohenheim had told them of his world, and they wanted the magic in it. Alchemy. And so they opened the Gate. And by this, Edward and his younger brother Alphonse were reunited. They protected their world together.

But it came at a cost. They were stuck in this world, and could not return.

And now, a year later, they are just about to discover the magic that lies in it...


	2. Almost a Home: Phase 1

A/N: I'm going to try to update once a week, more regularly. I'm a few chapters ahead, but I want to try this so that I'll actually revise the chapters and not make them terrible. Sorry the prologue was so short compared to that author's note. It looks bigger on paper, I swear!

Anyway, December I probably won't be able to do this once-a-week thing, since finals and projects and just everything are coming up. So I'm putting the prologue, chapter 1, and 2 all up here now. But seriously, this story is going to be slow for the plot. Glacial pace. But hopefully still good :)

* * *

**Almost a Home**  
Phase 1.

* * *

The music played softly in the background. It was mellow compared to the thundering, crashing music that was so prevalent in these times, yet powerful in its own right. There were the rising crests and the falling trills of the violent; the deep bass of the guitar amp echoing through the restaurant, supporting the entire orchestra. Then, a solitary clarinet, playing through intricate melodies both high and low pitched, yet still melding its voice to the rest. And yet, more than anything else, it felt real. Al could feel the music; he could –

"So." An awkward voice broke into the silence that had encompassed the table. "Got any other plans for tonight?"

Al had to contain his sigh. Jean Havoc of this world din't have the patience for classical music. For that matter, he wasn't sure the Havoc they had known back in Amestris had appreciated it either. Maybe if there was a woman beautiful enough for him.

He had to suppress a snicker this time. In both worlds, Havoc, no _Jean_, had trouble when it came to women.

"Nope." This time is was Brother, cheerily answering back. "No plans at all. Right, Al?"

"None," Al agreed easily, and Jean got that contemplative look that really meant he had actually been planning this all along.

"Hey, you know," he started casually, "a few of my friend and I were planning to see a movie later –" But he stopped when Ed began choking on his water, a frown replacing the friendly look on his face moments earlier. "What's so funny about that?"

"You –" A hacking cough. "– You brought us here to ask us to come with you to the _movies_? Come on, Jean, restaurants like this aren't cheap." And Ed didn't make that bill any smaller, Al noticed, eyeing the stacks of plates in front of his brother.

But to both of their surprise, instead of shrugging it off modestly or even boasting at how it was nothing to him (which would actually be more surprising, considering Jean worked at a department store), his face turned bright pink and his bottom lip started to wobble. Clearly, something was wrong.

"It – it was a –" His words turned into an incoherent babble and the other two leaned in, trying to hear.

"What happened?" Al tried to ask gently, but Jean started sobbing now, and many of the restaurant attendants were now giving them strange looks.

"Hey, Jean, it's okay," Ed started to say. "You don't have to –"

"IT WAS FOR A GIRL AND SHE DUMPED ME!" he wailed. The two brothers leaned back in their chairs at the sudden shockwave of sound and shared startled glances.

It was going to be a long day.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Somehow, they survived going to the movies with him. Only one of his friends had come along to share in the misery of watching a sappy love story with a soggy, tear-filled Jean Havoc clinging to their shirts. Apparently, he was his roommate and had to take care of him.

Jean was a good, nice guy, but sometimes, it was just a little too much.

"Hey, I'm sure you'll find another girl," Brother said, awkwardly trying to comfort him. Al joined in a moment later.

"Brother's right! You're a nice guy; no one can resist you for long." A few moments later, and tear-ridden eyes looked up to the brothers in what could only be called a "puppy face."

"You think so?" he said, and when they nodded, he seemed to cheer up considerably. "Thanks!" He grinned. "You know, this is what I like about you two. And, uh," he paused, looking sheepish for a moment, "Sorry about the movie. It was kind of cheesy, wasn't it?" Ed let out an easy laugh.

"Yeah, it really was. Next time, you let me pick." Al made a face.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Brother." He could see Ed roll his eyes.

"Oh, come on, Al. I know I've got better taste than _that _klutz anyway." He titled his head to Jean, but there was a grin on his face.

"Hey! I'm not a klutz!" Jean protested indignantly, but his "friend," Alex, chose that moment to betray the blond.

"Sure you are, Jean. Remember that time when you crashed into that doorway with the cart?" Jean's open mouth was enough to prove that this was no fictuous story.

"Alex –! You know what, forget about anything I said about you guys being nice." He _humphed _and turned around, walking away from us. "I'm going home!" He called out, almost like a rebellious teenager. Alex gave the brothers an apologetic glance and chased after him.

"Sorry, I gotta go before he locks me out of the flat," he said, and left the two alone in the street. For a moment, Al stared after them. And then,

"I'm just glad he didn't take us to another concert." He heard a badly-stifled snort of laughter from Ed.

"Yeah, you ran out pretty quickly after _that_. 'A butchery of music', right?" Brother lifted his fingers as if to put it in quotation marks, and Al mock glared at him.

"It was! I don't even know how I can _hear _after that –" But now Ed was laughing, and the affront act fell all too easily and Al found himself laughing alongside Ed. It took a few minutes for it to die out, every look at each other's face only inspiring more fits of laughter.

When they were finally on their way again, back to the house, Al risked speaking.

"He's really a good guy, isn't he? Jean?"

"Yeah." Ed's voice was soft, reflective. "we only met him a few months ago, but he's already taken it upon himself for us to learn all the joys of modern society." There was a wry grin on his face, and a small uplift to his tone to show he was joking.

But it was only partially; the majority of the message had been true. Jean Havoc had done a lot of them. Maybe he had noticed how the subconsciously leaned towards him, a familiar figure in this unfamiliar world, and so he had taken them under his wing. But he had never had to, and so both of them were grateful to him. Sometimes, he had these dramas, like today, but he was a good man.

Sometime, Al had wondered at that. There were clear differences between the Jean of this world and the Havoc they had known. Jean was more carefree, an adult well-versed in today's modern society, where Havoc was an experienced soldier. Others Al and Ed had seen in this world too had such conflicted characters. And since they had never quite settled down, never quite called a place "home," they had seen many of the dopplegangers in various places.

Now, Al and Ed had been living in London for a few months for Ed's work. Even after Alfons died, Ed still pursued space engineering. Al knew that his brother knew it wouldn't get them back to their world. Instead, it was more of a respect for the friend he had lost, to continue in his work. This had again brought Ed to London, where he had been working before, but in a different area than back then. Sometimes, Al would go with Ed to visit the Hughes and Gracia of this world. They were living well together, and expecting their firstborn any moment now.

As for Al, he was in school. It was one of the more frustrating things about this world. His body was under the age limit, and so he was required by law to go.

"Hey, Al." He looked up at that tone. He'd know it anywhere. Brother was planning something. "It's Halloween tomorrow." He looked at Ed cautiously, trying to understand.

"...And?"

"Think about the date, Al." It took a moment, and then he realized, a wide grin flourishing on his face.

"Of course! The Golden Dawn opened the portal on _Halloween_ last year. It's been a year since we've been in this world." Ed nodded eagerly.

"And this year, we'll make it the best Halloween ever, right Al?"

They shared infectious grins.


	3. Halloween: Phase 2

A/N: And the last chapter for now. Thank you everyone who decided to follow this story before despite it's terribleness!

* * *

**Halloween**  
Phase 2.

* * *

Ed peeked out the door before taking a cautious step outside. Instead of only a few people wandering about to watch him setting up the decorating, there were many – all wearing cloaks.

_Starting Halloween a bit early, then? _he thought, watching them. Strangely enough, most were adults instead of kids, and many were sporting point hats. Maybe there was a witch fetish this Halloween?

He didn't know if that was common around here. After all, last year he'd been too busy stopping the invasion of his world to worry about people in pointy hats.

He shrugged and started putting up the decorations. There was no reason to stand and gawk in the doorway after all. There was work to do, and he was planning on doing the best job he could.

Unfortunately, there was little to decorate the small house they were renting in the suburbs. The mail box? What could he put on it? Maybe some grass?

Ed found himself uncomfortably out of ideas. If he had alchemy, he could make the place look as spooky as possible in a jiffy, but as it was...

He'd just have to improvise a little.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

An hour later, Al found him covered in dirt and surrounded by odd figurines. Ed had taken some paint from inside and swabbed it onto the dirt to make the various ghouls and zombies and fake graves more realistic and less... dirt-like. For a job done without alchemy, he decided, it was pretty well done.

Al had a different opinion on the matter.

"Brother!" he exclaimed when he saw the wreckage of the lawn, eyes widened. "How are you planning on cleaning this up?" Ed gave him a goofy grin.

"I haven't really thought about it."

He earned a wack from Al's none-too-gentle hand.

"Ow!" He pouted, holding his left shoulder as if it were mortally wounded. "What was that for?"

"For not thinking," the younger brother replied easily.

Ed stuck his tongue at him.

He earned another wack.

"And I thought Winry was the mean one..." he muttered. Al gave him some kind of evil smirk, and Ed raised his hands in mock surrender.

"All right, all right! I'll figure out a way to clean it up! But for now –" He grinned cheekily. "– You can't say it's not the spookiest house on the block." Al laughed.

"That's true." He took a seat on the ground next to Ed. "But the grass won't be growing back anytime soon." He gave Ed a playful push, which he promptly returned. Soon, they were both sprawled on the ground, laughing.

It was nice not to have to worry about anything, to be so carefree again. Maybe Al and him would finally just be able to rest, together like this, just like they had before...

"Why do you think there are so many owls out today?" Al's voice startled him from his thoughts.

"Hmm? Owls?" But now that Al had mentioned it, he could see them nearly everywhere, flying over nearly every building. Even on their own house, there were a few perched on the rooftop. "I don't know, Al. It is a little strange." He grinned. "Maybe it's just a part of the Halloween decor." But Al still had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"No... I don't think that's it." Slowly, he got up from the ground. "And the whole outfit thing is a bit strange. Could it be the Golden Dawn again?" Ed frowned and stood up next to his little brother.

"It could be. Halloween supposedly amplifies magic, so it makes sense that some members might want to try again." He groaned and reached out a hand to rub sore back muscles. "Al, I'm too old for this. I'm already eighteen!"

"You're not that old, Brother." But a smile could be heard in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah. Well, let's get to it, all right? You never know quite when old age'll catch up to me."

Al laughed and watched as Ed spryly jumped onto the street from the elevated landscape of the lawn.

"Do you think someone as _old _as you could do that so easily?" Ed heard him say.

"Shut up, Al," he grumbled, and another laugh came from behind.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It had been almost too easy. They had picked a person in a cloak, followed him, and here they were, standing in front of a pub labeled so clearly "The Leaky Cauldron."

Was it the right place? Could something so innocuous harbor something that could be so devastating? A pub for those who wanted to take over the world?  
Of course. Worse criminals have hidden in less likely places. Ed should know. He brought down many of those himself.

But what was in the pub was neither what they had been expecting or dreading. Not even close to their wildest of possibilities.

In the bluntest way possible, it was magic. Not the kind of card tricks that a street performer could do, but real, live magic. Floating objects. Pointy witch hats. People stepping out from a _fire_, unharmed.

In other worlds, it was something that came straight from a fairy tale.

He felt Al grip his arm.

"_Brother_." His voice was tight. "Were we – were we wrong? Could the Golden Dawn actually do _magic_?"

"I don't think it's the Golden Dawn, Al." Ed could faintly hear his own words past his racing mind. "This is too big for that."

And it was true. Other signs hadn't up either. The hats? Even the few members would have laughed if they had seen them. After all, the majority of them weren't bad, and Ed was even on good terms with several of them (like Hughes). If they really could have preformed magic, wouldn't he know by now?

Or... the other possibility was that this was alchemy. Was it possible that this side of the Gate developed some sort of mutated form of it? We had thought the split between the worlds occurred at the triumph of physics over alchemy, but what if we were wrong? What if it ran so much deeper than that... A mutation of alchemy itself? A different set of laws that the universe worked under, rather than the Equivalent Exchange Ed had sought after for so long?

The though shocked him. Equivalent Exchange... How could it be false? And yet, after all he had been through, all _Al _had been, how could it be true?

"Brother." A hand tugged on his sleeve. "We can't just stand here, staring like this."

Al's voice returned him to the present. It reminded him that there was something here they needed to learn, and to do that, they needed to _act_.

"Yeah." His voice escaped him like water past a burst dam. It betrayed the anxiety that he was feeling. Was that what it was? Anxiety?

In any case, when he sat down on the stool next to the bar counter, the nerves calmed down. He had done this before.

"Got a drink?" he asked the bartender with a grin. The balding old man looked at him suspiciously, then at Al.

"How old are you kids?" Ed's eyes widened as he realized what the man had thought he meant.

"Nothing alcoholic!" he protested, then added more sullenly, "And I'm not a kid." The bartender raised an eyebrow, but left, presumable to get drinks for us. He returned a moment later with two cups filled to the brim.

"Butterbeer," he said, as if that explained everything.

Ed looked at his cup cautiously. It was bubbly... Didn't that mean it was alcoholic? He didn't know enough about drinks to be certain.

Al had no such reservations. He brought the cup to his lips and took a sip, and immediately, his eyes widened with pleasure.

"It's good!" he exclaimed. And as Ed watched, a large grin formed on the bartender's face.

"Never had butterbeer before?" Al shook his head. "It's really a treat. My name's Tom."

"Alphonse. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"And you." The grin died a little as he turned to Ed. "What's your name, friend?" Ed noticed the change in title, and he couldn't say it didn't please him at all.

"Edward." He held out his left hand, and after a moment's hesitation, the man took it.

"So, Edward, Alphonse. What brings you here?" The man leaned his hand on the counter and spoke conversationally.

"Just looking for a drink," Ed replied smoothly. "To celebrate the occasion, you know." The man nodded, and Ed got the feeling that "the occasion" meant a lit more to Tom than it did to him. What was he missing?

"Yeah, we get a lot of business on this day," Tom said, but his eyes were looking past them. "Well, I can't stop to chat any longer. I have to go."

"See you around." Ed waved him off, but then turned to Al. "What do you think?" His little brother took a few moments, contemplating the conversation.

"I think there's something else going on here that we don't know about." Then there was a sly grin on his face, and Ed grew worried. "And... I think you should drink that." He pointedly brought the cup to his own face. Ed mimicked him, wondering what was so important about the drink.

Then he tasted his first sip, and knew.

The "butterbeer" sent a warm, comfortable feeling tingling all the way down to his toes, making even his automail ports seem to weight less heavily on the rest of his flesh body. And the taste too. Despite the warmth, it was still fresh, like the smell of the evergreen tree we had always decorated as kids together. It had a nostalgic quality, and somehow, that made it even better.

"I have to give him one thing," Ed said, looking after Tom, who was now merrily greeting a regular over on the other side of the bar. "He really knows how to make a drink."

Al grinned.

"I told you so."


End file.
